Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
A recent paper by George R. Horner, covering work done by Wheaton College at the Fisher site, Will County, Illinois, contains several statements requiring comment. In order to comment on these points it will be necessary to outline certain material contained in an unpublished manuscript of the writer.
The well-known Fisher site, consisting of 12 mounds and over 50 house pits, was initially excavated by George Langford. Later work was conducted by several University of Chicago field parties, and a W.P.A. expedition. The site is located on the point of land formed by the Des Plaines and Kankakee rivers as they approach their confluence and unite to form the Illinois. Four cultural horizons can be recognized at the site: (1) long-headed burials without grave goods in the gravel beneath the mounds, (2) three periods of Upper Mississippi occupation, (3) Late Woodland, and (4) Historic. We are only concerned with the Upper Mississippi occupations in the present note.
1 Horner, George R., “An Upper Mississippi House-Pit from the Fisher Village Site: Further Evidence,” Transactions of the Illinois State Academy of Science, Vol. 40, pp. 26–29, Urbana, 1947.Google Scholar
2 Griffin, John W., The Upper Mississippi Occupations of the Fisher Site, Will County, Illinois, unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Chicago, 1946.Google Scholar
3 Langford, George, “The Fisher Mound Group, Successive Aboriginal Occupations near the Mouth of the Illinois River,” American Anthropologist, n.s., Vol. 29, No. 3, Menasha, 1927 Google Scholar. The extensive bibliography on the site is not reproduced in the present note.
4 Illustrations of the types may be found in Langford, op. cit., and James B. Griffin, The Fort Ancient Aspect, Ann Arbor, 1943, as follows. Fisher Trailed. Langford, Pls. XII, d-f: XIII, a, c, d; Griffin, Pls. CXXXVI, CXXXVII, and CXXXIX: 1.
Langford Trailed. Griffin, Pl. CXXXVUI: 1–23.
Langford Corded. Langford, Pl. XIII , f; Griffin, Pl. CXXXIX: 4–5.
Fisher Noded. Langford, Pl. XIII, e, upper left.
5 Deuel, Thome, “Archaeological Field Work of the Illinois State Museum,” Journal of the Illinois State Archaeological Society, Vol. 3, No. 1, Champlain, 1940.Google Scholar
6 Horner, op. cit., p. 28.